RE: "It wasn't about technology, it was about public attitudes toward technology as reflected in written Science Fiction."

McKnight Has written a lot of oped pieces for space daily and this was a general comment on them.

RE: "The hippies won quote blatantly ignores the leaps in science and technology since then."

My mistake. I started responding based on Tom's post before I read the piece and didn't catch the error. I obviously mistook Tom's comment as a quote.

RE: a lot of the rest

I think of SciFi as a genre including film and books. That's why I included the movie list. Now Spider and McKnigh may not have intended to include film in the discussion, but I think that it is an even bigger mistake to judge public attitudes toward space based solely on book sales. And yes Apollo 13 is the true life space yarn I was talking about. Why would you assume I was talking about anything else? I thought it ought to be pretty obvious to anyone on this board. Since I started with comments about Star Trek I also thought it should be obvious that was what I was talking about in terms of comparative box office. Where you get Buffy I have no idea.

RE: "The hard cash shelled out for other space related movies and polls say differently."

I didn't think a comma after "related movies" was appropriate but did wonder if anyone would misinterpret my intention the way you did. How about - Polls and the hard cash shelled out for other space related movies say differently. A good rule of thumb however is to assume that if a sentence makes no sense on first reading you should look for an alternative meaning. A good writer might not make such a mistake of clarity, but I don't claim to be worthy of earning a living by writing.

Re: "I seldom agree with anything he says"

OK over kill. Let's say I always find something in his opeds to strongly disagree with. He also usually makes some good points as well. I just find the error rate awful high for someone who seems to think his grasp of the issues is superior to most others.

RE: "That's not the impression I get - in fact, he has some advice I think you ought to take to heart: Leaders don't whine about how lame their troops are: they train them, educate them, inspire them, and lead."

I agree with leadership quote. When have you heard me whine about the troups? I certainly don't think he trained, educated, inspired or lead effectively as Executive director of the Mars Society. The most common comment I heard at the second MS convention with regard to him was "What the hell are we paying him for?". The briefness of his tenure does not suggest his service as ED was valued, but I do not know the circumstances of his departure. He certainly has not become personna non grata. He has participated in several MS panel discussions since then. What do you think he accomplished?

Regards,
Mark